Share your favourite training drills here! Make sure you include a description of the drill itself, as well as an explanation of what aspects of the stroke it works on, or problems that it targets.
Geoff's Favourites (when coaching, not rowing):
Double-pause rowing: During the normal stroke, the rowers pause at the 'hands away' point and wait for the "row" call from the coxwain or coach, before moving quickly to the "arms and body" point and pausing again. Upon the second "row" call, they proceed down the slide as normal and perform a regular drive action, pausing again at 'hands away', and so on. This drill works on several aspects of the stroke, including slide control, correct body positioning and stroke sequencing, quick/clean/poised finishes, and a strong, upright body position throughout the stroke. Variations include single pauses, altering the pause position (eg. half slide), or alternating between paused strokes and continuous strokes.
Tapping: Rowers sit at the finish with blades squared and buried, then upon the coxwain/coach's call, they begin to tap their blade fully into and out of the water in time with each other. The aim is to perform sharp, clean tapouts and re-entries in time with each other as a crew, whilst balancing the boat. This is a particularly good drill to use with novice rowers, as it emphasises the square-blade tapdown motion that must occur at the finish before the blades are feathered, as well as emphasising the need for a strong, upright body position that is stable enough to tap out against. Variations include performing this drill as a crew with eyes closed, or tapping at the catch position (emphasising the need to have a strong, upright torso and isolating the upward movement of the wrists to bury the blade).
Crew performing tapping drill at the finish(Casey Cobb, Novice Men State Champs Training, September 2010)
Crew performing tapping drill at the catch(Casey Cobb, Novice Men State Champs Training, September 2010) Square blade rowing: Almost universally hated by rowers, this drill is sometimes necessary to 'clean up' a more advanced crew that is rowing sloppily. Rowing with square blades makes it extremely unpleasant to row without an adequate tapout or sloppy handle heights, hence this drill forces the rowers to fix up their tapouts and handle heights or risk bashing their knuckles on the boat! Also tends to get a crew concentrating on balance if their focus is wavering.
Please contribute yours, to help build a large resource of training drills for coaches and coxwains to implement!
Philpot's Favourites (Tim):
Stuffing the Duck: The rower starts at full compression, buries the blade, initiates the stroke and stops at half slide, taps out and then moves back up to full compression to repeat. This drill should not be performed for more than 20-30 strokes as there is a lot of stress placed on the back and core muscles to hold the body in an uncomfortable postion. The drill is designed to focus on catch placement ensuring that the blade is being backed into the water as well as holding the body/posture tall.
Eyes Closed Rowing: While this exercise does not work on any specific part of the stroke, it does place emphasis on the rower to be able to feel where their body and oar(s) are in space. For the rower to be able to feel for their body and oar in space they can physically feel the changes to their technique that the coach highlights, and hold the changes as a difference (whether it is positive or negative) is able to be noticed. The exercise can be done for a whole session or a few strokes, doesnt really matter just depends how harsh you want to be on your crew. I came to the realisation of the importance of 'feel', after coaching a visually impaired athlete who was able to make almost immediate changes to their technique and hold the changes.
Training Drills
Share your favourite training drills here! Make sure you include a description of the drill itself, as well as an explanation of what aspects of the stroke it works on, or problems that it targets.
Geoff's Favourites (when coaching, not rowing):
Double-pause rowing: During the normal stroke, the rowers pause at the 'hands away' point and wait for the "row" call from the coxwain or coach, before moving quickly to the "arms and body" point and pausing again. Upon the second "row" call, they proceed down the slide as normal and perform a regular drive action, pausing again at 'hands away', and so on. This drill works on several aspects of the stroke, including slide control, correct body positioning and stroke sequencing, quick/clean/poised finishes, and a strong, upright body position throughout the stroke. Variations include single pauses, altering the pause position (eg. half slide), or alternating between paused strokes and continuous strokes.
Tapping: Rowers sit at the finish with blades squared and buried, then upon the coxwain/coach's call, they begin to tap their blade fully into and out of the water in time with each other. The aim is to perform sharp, clean tapouts and re-entries in time with each other as a crew, whilst balancing the boat. This is a particularly good drill to use with novice rowers, as it emphasises the square-blade tapdown motion that must occur at the finish before the blades are feathered, as well as emphasising the need for a strong, upright body position that is stable enough to tap out against. Variations include performing this drill as a crew with eyes closed, or tapping at the catch position (emphasising the need to have a strong, upright torso and isolating the upward movement of the wrists to bury the blade).
Square blade rowing: Almost universally hated by rowers, this drill is sometimes necessary to 'clean up' a more advanced crew that is rowing sloppily. Rowing with square blades makes it extremely unpleasant to row without an adequate tapout or sloppy handle heights, hence this drill forces the rowers to fix up their tapouts and handle heights or risk bashing their knuckles on the boat! Also tends to get a crew concentrating on balance if their focus is wavering.
Please contribute yours, to help build a large resource of training drills for coaches and coxwains to implement!
Philpot's Favourites (Tim):
Stuffing the Duck: The rower starts at full compression, buries the blade, initiates the stroke and stops at half slide, taps out and then moves back up to full compression to repeat. This drill should not be performed for more than 20-30 strokes as there is a lot of stress placed on the back and core muscles to hold the body in an uncomfortable postion. The drill is designed to focus on catch placement ensuring that the blade is being backed into the water as well as holding the body/posture tall.
Eyes Closed Rowing: While this exercise does not work on any specific part of the stroke, it does place emphasis on the rower to be able to feel where their body and oar(s) are in space. For the rower to be able to feel for their body and oar in space they can physically feel the changes to their technique that the coach highlights, and hold the changes as a difference (whether it is positive or negative) is able to be noticed. The exercise can be done for a whole session or a few strokes, doesnt really matter just depends how harsh you want to be on your crew. I came to the realisation of the importance of 'feel', after coaching a visually impaired athlete who was able to make almost immediate changes to their technique and hold the changes.